1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a character recognition apparatus which can very accurately recognize a segment character written by hand in a predetermined character frame (a plurality of segments).
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, in fields in which highly accurate recognition of characters written by hand is needed (for example, in the recognition of a telephone number of a correspondent written by hand in a facsimile), a character frame (segments) having the shape of " " is considered, and the recognition of a numeral is performed for a numeral character written by hand along the segments. In such a recognition method for a segment character, a line-segment region constituting each segment in the shape of " " has previously been set. By determining whether or not the number of black picture elements within each segment region for a character written by hand is larger than a threshold value, it is determined whether or not a character line has been entered in the segment. Finally, a numeral which coincides with a combination of segments in which character lines have been entered is selected.
In a conventional character recognition apparatus using such a method for the recognition of segment characters, however, if there is a noise image, such as a point, a stain or the like, having a number of picture elements larger than a threshold value at the position of segment a2 in a character written by hand, as shown in FIG. 4, it is determined that there is a character line in segment a2, and, for example, the character "0" is misrecognized as "8". Furthermore, a conventional apparatus also misrecognizes due to a snowfall-like noise image as shown in FIG. 5.